Comparing Fullscreen Apps in Lion

[peopleinatree]

Its often necessary to split your screen between two different applications in order to reference one app while you're working in the other (e.g. working in Pages while you're referencing information on Wikipedia in Safari).

OS X was never very good in this regard, and its an even bigger problem in Lion with fullscreen apps. Microsoft actually came up with a decent solution in Windows 7 by autosizing a window to fit half of the screen when you drag it to the edge.

Well now that we have Mission Control why not allow full screen applications to be dragged and dropped on top of each other to create half-screen apps? It would sort of be like how you create folders in Launch Pad; you would enter Mission Control, drag one of your fullscreen apps on the other. Or drag a regular app onto a fullscreen app for the same effect.

 

[baryon]

Good idea, I think that would work with some apps, but I'm sure it would be really bad with others. Safari and text editors will look fine in any size, but many apps won't work with such long, narrow proportions.

 

[djrod]

The point of fullscreen apps is to not use them among others. This is what you are looking for: http://irradiatedsoftware.com/cinch/

 

[kikuchiyo]

Also, fullscreen might make this easier, as you can just flip/flick through each screen.

 

[mrblack927]

Cool idea. I could definitely see them doing something like this.

 

[SideStepSociety]

BetterTouchTool also supports Windows 7 like "snapping". I have yet to use it, however.

 

[stridemat]

BetterTouchTool also supports Windows 7 like "snapping". I have yet to use it, however.

It works very well

 

[peopleinatree]

Yeah I looked at BTTs and Cinch. They look neat, but I'm not such a fan of having window management utilities hacked on top of the OS.

I think this is a problem Apple will eventually have to tackle on iOS as it develops more capabilities.

I really like fullscreen apps in Lion, but the two problems I run into are this and not being able to see indicators on the dock without moving my mouse to the bottom of the screen (such as if I just got a new email and my speakers are muted).

 

[thinh3d]

Yeah I looked at BTTs and Cinch. They look neat, but I'm not such a fan of having window management utilities hacked on top of the OS.

I think this is a problem Apple will eventually have to tackle on iOS as it develops more capabilities.

I really like fullscreen apps in Lion, but the two problems I run into are this and not being able to see indicators on the dock without moving my mouse to the bottom of the screen (such as if I just got a new email and my speakers are muted).

These apps are not hack. Cinch and BetterSnapTool and many other similar apps are on sale in the Mac App Store, which does not allow any sort of "hack" in the system. They are actually very good, as you can assign shortcut keys to choose snap to left, right, or full screen. You can try BetterTouchTool, which is a wonderful, wonderful free app. Or you can try the BetterSnapTool, the paid app from the same developer, but less functionalities, and sanctioned by Apple. It's up to you.

 

[Legion93]

There's a perfect app called 'Cinch' which divides two windows from the window/screen. You can get it on the Mac App Store. I keep it on all the time so whenever I log in to my computer, it opens automatically and is very good.